Mars (GM)
Colonization To be continued... Formative Period The authorities then began an outreach program, whereby they would seek out the more moderate former members of the Confederate government and work with them. In exchange for political legitimacy, however, the moderates would give up their more radical rivals to the authorities. These radicals were then skillfully and surgically taken out. The MIDC established a new set of parameters for rule, whereby they would allow the Martians a greater degree of self-governance, involving a legislative body where half of the members would consist of Martian representatives, despite the necessity of the representatives receiving approval from the MIDC. The lives of the Martian natives in the badlands were frequently short and miserable due to the poor living conditions in their habitats. To compensate, the Martian natives often bred more than the city dwellers, and their culture promoted great resilience in the face of adversity. The emergent culture was akin in many regards to the old Eurasian steppe cultures, with a sedentary spin to compensate for the planet's few habitat-friendly spaces. The Martian outback became dotted by these settlements, each with the same basic experience of living the harsh Martian existence but different local identities predominating over the shared Martian one. The Martian natives established vital trade links with the cities, fostering a spirit of heiarchy which held Martian society largely in place. The Martian Councils, alternate bodies of governance emergent in the badlands and based on anarchist and direct democratic principles, quickly fizzled out, however, as the emerging order revolved around the cities; as well, the lack of financial backing didn't help much either. Any hopes of independence, the more moderate Martian natives realized, would have to be in cooperation with local corporate interests. A plan for a larger scale body, a version of the Martian Councils made up of domestic Martian corporations, yet still representative and fair to the people, was crafted to integrate the needed resources of the powerful into a vision of separatism and assertion of identity. The “Blueprint for Mars”, as it became known, would serve as a framework for later endeavors in the pursuit of independence. Eventually, new Councils would emerge, linked up with the isolationist revolutionary urban benefactors. They would serve as the local gathering body for the organization of the break with Earth. The Red Will Party, the dominant revolutionary independence party on the planet, began a campaign of mass-mobilization, to try and stir up a revolution. But the tactics employed since the Hellas Revolt had dilluted the number of radicals on Mars to such an extent that radical revolution and overthrow of the system was unfathomable and seen as taboo. The party quickly withered away, but a more moderate spirit of independence lingered. It even began to grow in the cities, as the city-dwellers began to think about the possibility of keeping their earnings on Mars and not having them flee to Mars. The links with their trading partners in the wilderness would serve this purpose. The Red Will Revolt became another footnote in the history of independence to join the long mythology. But it did help fan the flames of separatism. By the time the struggle for independence reached its crescendo, the city-dwellers and badlands natives had developed separate outlooks upon the world, albeit fairly interdependent ones. Martian cultural identities had developed three layers: first, the planetary identity, whereby everyone recognized themselves as intertwined in the same basic fate as the rest of the planet in relation to Earth and elsewhere; second: city-dweller (where immigrants under Terran servitude were more inclined to a business mentality, seeking only to trade with their neighbors and have minimal interaction otherwise, even with the badlanders)vs badlander (where individuals who knew Mars as their cultural home had developed a sense of unity in their common experience of survival in the wilderness); and third: tribal (the distance between the cities and the separate badlands settlements bred an almost tribal sense of local identity which co-existed with the other two identities. The city-dwellers would only unite in common cause with the badlands revolutionaries if the corporate breakoff movement got strong enough among the city elite and they saw the badlanders as useful allies against the Earth forces. The two separate moves for independence, erroneously known as the “Martian Revolution”, would occur simultaneously and feed each other; but they would fall into conflict with one another shortly after the common enemy had left Mars. Independence for Mars would come after a secret video conference of all the planetside heads of business on Mars. They agreed on the principle of controlling their own wealth and not allowing it to flow to a completely different planet.They then pooled their resources to buy up the collective Terran assets on Mars, as well as the rights to the planetary sovereignty, such as the right to levy taxes on the population. But the deal did not go through, as Earth's hold on Mars was deemed not for sale. The executives in the cities then turned to their badlands allies to change the Terrans' calculations and make them want to leave through a perceived spike in the risk of holding on to Mars. The Martian revolutionaries attempted infiltration as a tactic in their fight for independence, whereby they would attain control of Terran-controled assets through infiltration tactics like hacking or commandeering. With each infiltration, however, the Earth forces would tighten security at their own facilities, especially after several untrained Martian guerrillas were captured in the act. The infiltration campaign led to two side-effects: the gaining of valuable supplies for the furthering of the fight, as well as increased concentration of resources around Earth assets due to heightened security. Tactics such as this led to the Earth business interests to take the offer given by the Mars business execs. Martian independence was secured. But the loss of a common enemy led to the dissolution of the common front uniting Mars. Civil war ensued. The civil war period was defined by a set of warlord-run fiefdoms which fought with the other states and shot missiles at any ships passing Martian space on the way to the Asteroid Belt. The violence raged for 44 years, until a few of the strongest warlords formed a coalition and brought the others into their orbit. Eventually, an understanding was reached that, due to the vastness of any potential Martian state, peace mandated a high degree of decentralization, with an attitude of letting everyone largely run their own affairs. Thus, a free trade zone was established on the surface including all of the nascent corporate-run Martian statelets. A common foreign policy for dealing with non-Martian affairs was also established, along with an emergency military protocol for defense against threats from elsewhere in the system. Over time, this structure would solidify into a corporate democratic system never tried elsewhere, as a compromise between the still rebellious dissenter groups and the corporate-run states. A free trade zone was established on the surface including all of the nascent corporate-run Martian statelets. A common foreign policy for dealing with non-Martian affairs was also established. Over time, this structure would solidify into a corporate democratic system never tried elsewhere, as a compromise between the still rebellious dissenter groups and the corporate-run states. The new states within the Martian Free Trade Area each competed with each other for the most business-friendly conditions, so as to attract vessels passing by on their way from the Inner to Outer System. Mars held a strategic position in between, supplying a gravity well for manufacturing, and it quickly became a major financial and manufacturing hub. The corporations would each use their abundant wealth to provide services to their governed, each corporation controlling one statelet, consisting of a city and several associated autonomous tribes. These services would include things like fire, medical care, public utilities, police, and education. Giving these services was mandated if a corporation wanted to be a member of the United Planetary Board of Corporations, the legislative body for Mars. The Standard of Human Rights is the barometer of a corporation's worthiness to be on the board, and the Standard says that a corporation must provide social services to its governed people above a set minimum, or it can not be a member of the Board. The people of each state on Mars can vote for a different corporation to govern it during elections every four years, based on personal ideals, choosing the corporation whose stated goals and quality of service appeal most to the voter. This drives the corporations to spend money on advertising and on improvement of services, introducing a competition factor into the provision of social services which helps increase their quality and ensuring a constant increase in the quality of life for everyone. The corporation that receives the plurality of votes in a specific state is deemed the winner of the election in that state and gets one seat on the Board for each election victory. Taxation was replaced by a system whereby employees of all corporations are guaranteed at least two shares of company stock. When governing corporations issue dividends, 10% of the profits issued go to the Government's Shared Dividend Fund, the general fund equivalent in the Federation. Government programs at the federal level, such as National Defense and Government Initiatives passed by the Legislature are funded by the Shared Dividend Fund in addition to Service Options purchased by citizens. This funding method is used in place of a levied tax on domestic citizens and business. Multinational corporations not based on Mars are subject to corporate income taxes on goods and services sold on Mars. The Chief Executive is the the member of the Board whose corporation has a plurality of seats on the Board. This individual is in charge of commanding the collective militaries in time of war, and he also serves as the representative to foreign leaders when Mars as a whole must be represented. He occupies a very weak executive branch when compared to other polities. The Chief Executive does have the power, however, to appoint State Officers, the equivalent of a Cabinet in other democratic systems. Each of these individuals must be approved by the Board, but they are given nationwide control over their respective parts of the executive government. Mars' strategic position between the inhabited worlds of the inner system and the mining economies of the Belt led to it becoming a hub of economic activity, almost akin to early 21st century Singapore on the Strait of Malacca. In orbit above Mars, space stations dedicated to refueling ships on the way to the Belt sprung up and became highly profitable ventures. Trading posts lie scattered throughout Martian orbit, often congregating around the major cities of Mars. The Board enacted a tax on all ships passing through Martian space which would be proportionately distributed throughout the states. As well, they enacted legislation which exempted Mars-based companies from the ship tax. The unexpected side effect of this exemption led to an influx of companies from Earth and elsewhere moving to Mars. While the new surge of corporations and their capital helped the Martian economy, the political system struggled to incorporate the new corporations. The fact that they did not provide services kept them out of government. But they quickly became separated from the established Martian corporate sphere due to this. Their constituents were left unrepresented by the Board, leaving them vulnerable to the policies of a government in which they had no say. Many began the construction of new space stations and onworld habitats. They provided their services to their people as the established corporations had done. But getting up to par with the established corporations made their businesses far less profitable. Some corporations just decided to not push for a seat on the Board and just focus on profits. The result was a growing mass of people who were essentially second-class citizens living on Mars and in orbit. Though this was largely out of voluntary choice, the corporations' constituents were also at the whim of the existing social framework, which did not allow easily new members into its rigid heiarchical structure. Terraforming Mars has always been seen as a target for colonization, as well as environmental modification on a planetary scale, otherwise known as terraforming. This finally became financially feasible for nations to do after the mining of asteroids became common practice. Large quantities of water were delivered to the red planet via comets; this constant bombardment created enough heat to kickstart weak geological actvity within the planet.However, a calcutation error in the computer systems designed to monitor the comet delivery caused a single highly localized ocean to develop on one side of the planet, as well as a single tectonic fault line through the ocean. The terraformation commitee decided to leave the ocean as it was, relatively shallow, with a resemblance to the Western Interior Seaway of the cretaceous era on Earth. Plans for further terraformation were put on hold, among these the Schiaparelli Project, named after the Italian astronomer from the 19th century who claimed to see canals on the surface of Mars. This project would use nuclear devices to carve a network of canals into Mars' surface to spread the water, but this was scrapped due to the lack of a surplus of water on the planet. Only a few canals were built, one of which became the center for the city of New Venice. Before life could be introduced into the Martian environment, invasive species carried there on board private mining ships by mistake had already begun to establish the beginnings of an ecology. And earth ecologists were most interested in the fact that these organisms had within a few generations specialized into the Martian settlements, forming what became termed an "urban ecology." This would eventually become the importance of Mars, as a testament to the ephemeral divide between natural and artificial. Eventually the philosophical impact of the Martian urban ecology would lead to the overall gradual removal of the divide from the human psyche. Ecology As stated above, the urban ecology phenomenon gave Mars a distinct feel from Earth. What is suprising is that this is the dominant ecology on the red planet, which many foresee becoming an "ecumenopolis," a city that spans the entirety of the planet; this would, however, include a spin on the original concept, by including a closely knit biosphere. The underground habitats that existed since the first settlers came to Mars in the year 2--- have developed their own ecology, and this has been spread elsewhere by the development of transport tunnels and subways. The most well known wildlife of sewers is rats, which commonly consume human refuse and food that the rodents steal from trash recepticles and vertical farms. An escaped pet boa constrictor was found living in sewage pipes in a block of flats. It would eventually spawn by viparious reproduction a genetically similar population that learned to focus on rats. Aligators also sustain themselves by consuming the rats. A type of worm known as the tubifex worm is quite abundant as well. These worms consume bacteria that thrive on contaminants in sewage water, which also picks up Martian sediment in some places. The worms can survive with little oxygen by waving hemoglobin rich tail-ends to exploit all available oxygen, they can also exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen through their thin skin, similar to frogs. They can also survive in areas heavily polluted with organic matter that almost no other species can endure. By forming a protective cyst and lowering its metabolic rate, T. tubifex can survive drought and food shortage. Encystment may also function in the dispersal of the worm. There is also the Martian Underground mosquito, the first indiginous species of animal to be recorded. Similar to a case study from the early 21st century of a unique mosquito that evolved to dwell in the underrground tunnels of London, consuming only the blood of humans who would wait for the sub, the Martian mosquito has become the basis for a fairly large piece of the Martian ecology, providing a source of food for animals higher up on the food chain, mostly spiders. Category:GM'Verse